powers



D. J. POWERS. HOSPITAL BEDl No. 244,073. Patented July 12, 1881.

Fig.1

I H I:

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DAVID J. POWERS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

HOSPITAL-BED.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 244,073, dated July 12, 1881.

Application filed March 17, 1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DAVID J. POWERS, of Chicago, in the countyof Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Hospital-Beds, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to hospital-beds; and it consists in combining, with a bed-bottom frame adapted to have the wire or other supporting fabric strained upon it independently of the supporting-posts, a collarbracket and posts, as hereinafter specified.

Heretofore hospital bedsteads have been made with their bottoms at a fixed and stationary height upon the standards or legs, and the mosquito bar structures have been attached to each post. Hospital-beds of fixed heights are objectionable in many cases, because sometimes the bed requires to be placed high enough to admit of the nurses or physicians sitting facing to the patient, with their lower limbs underneath the bed, thus facilitating the dressing of wounds and the like, while in other cases it is equally desirable to have a bed very low,to better enable disabled patients to get upon and off of the same.

My manner of constructing and applying the mosquito-bar fixtures to a bow of gas-pipe or iron bed end is much more simple and better than standing up a post at each corner in the old way, for the reason that uprights cannot be easily or substantially attached to the rounded corners of the pipe.

In the accompanying drawings, in which similar letters of reference indicate like parts, Figure 1 is a plan view, partially in section, which section is taken through line y y of Fig.- 2. Fig. 2 is an elevation, partially in section through line 00 m, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is an end elevation, and Fig. 4 is a detail of the bracket through which the standard of the mosquitonet bar slides.

My hospital-bed is constructed as follows:

The end supports, A, are made of iron bars or gaspipe, (the latter being preferable for lightness and cheapness,) bent into bows,with connecting-rods B to support them. Upon these pipes are secured collar-brackets (J f, adapted to fit over the pipes. Each collar is provided with a set-screw, cl, by means of which the bed-bottom is attached to the end supports at any desired height. These collars have side extensions or flan ges, f, adapted to be attached V to the bed-bottom frame E at each corner thereof.

The bed-bottom is constructed with side and end rails bolted together, with a wire fabric attached to the end rails. One of said end rails is composed of two parts, 0, connected by straining-bolts, for the purpose of straining or tightening the fabric.

The mosquito-bar structure F is made T- shaped, and attached at its lower end to the cross-rail by a screw or bolt at G, and higher up upon the standard is a sliding bracket, H, with lugs h upon its top side, that correspond with holes in the under side of the gas-pipe ends A, and in use is slid up into said holes and secured in position by a set-screw, d, thus making an adjustable attachment corresponding to and coworking with the adjustable stands when placing the bed-bottom higher or lower.

I am aware that bedsteads have heretofore been made of gas-pipe, and also of bar-iron, and that bedsteads have been made adjustable by means of collars upon the legs fastened by set-screws. I do not therefore claim these features or parts, broadly.

My device consists of a bed-bottom adapted to fit any bedstead, which is converted into a completed bedstead by simply attaching end supports, the bed-bottom taking the place of the ordinary side and end rails, thus making a cheap and strong bedstead and a bed-bottom combined.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The bed-bottom frame having the wire or other supporting fabric strained upon it, as shown, independently of the supporting-posts, in combination with the collar brackets O f and posts A, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

2. The combination,in a gaspipe-end bedstead, of the vertically-adjustable bed-bottom and the adjustable curtain device arranged thereon, to operate substantially as and for the purpose specified.

3. The T-shaped bars for supporting the curtain, in combination with the adjustable bracket H, constructed and arranged to opcrate substantially as described.

DAVID J. POWERS.

Witnesses:

JOHN H. WHIPPLE, WILLIAM HENDLEY. 

